Quicktime video clips: Interviews, Japanese professionals

[orkelm]

Clearly my own contribution is small, but here is a web site that I have been working on. It contains about 250 quicktime video clips of Japanese professionals who discuss a number of cultural and business issues. Feel free to visit, we use it for our university students, but there are no password restrictions. Not all the transcriptions and translations are done, but the clips are functional.

http://www.laits.utexas.edu/orkelm/japan/index.html

[Bueller_007]

Clearly my own contribution is small, but here is a web site that I have been working on. It contains about 250 quicktime video clips of Japanese professionals who discuss a number of cultural and business issues. Feel free to visit, we use it for our university students, but there are no password restrictions. Not all the transcriptions and translations are done, but the clips are functional.

http://www.laits.utexas.edu/orkelm/japan/index.html

Thanks. It looks quite interesting. I'll be sure to check it out when I get some decent bandwidth. Any chance you can skim off the video and provide an audio-only version as well? I'm sure there must be a tool that can do this for you automatically. (Perhaps QT itself can do it...)

[orkelm]

Others have asked the same question about audio only. Unfortunately for others, since we created the materials for our students at the University of Texas, we put them in the best format for them at the university. (However, we do have an audio version of a Hungarian translation of our Spanish language materials). Additionally, the same Japanese-language materials are available in Spanish, Portuguese, German, Chinese. My homepage is as follows:

http://www.laits.utexas.edu/orkelm/kelm.htm

[Belton]

Wow.

That's a very nicely designed site and interesting content. And it doesn't matter that my Japanese isn't up to it because you have English transcripts on a lot of them.

I find the video interesting (sort of professional interest). I'm wondering what information you are getting from seeing the person in terms of body language. They are quite long shots and the eyeline on the ones I watched was rarely towards the camera. I can't decide if this is a cultural thing or a result of how the footage was shot. (In TV style a shot like this is never going to be held that long and they try to get the subjects eyeline towards camera by sitting the interviewer next to the lens) And if they were reading something
It's interesting because I'm thinking about what works on the net and the best use of bandwidth for video clips.

I must also say it's great that this is freely accessible. I think in any UK university it'd be hidden away inside a faculty's site behind password controls.

Thanks for sharing.

[Bueller_007]

I must also say it's great that this is freely accessible. I think in any UK university it'd be hidden away inside a faculty's site behind password controls.

More and more universities are getting the clue that it only costs them pennies more to make this stuff available to everyone. (extra cost for bandwidth) MIT is the most famous example of opening up their materials to the general public:
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html

And since so much tax-payer money flows into even the private universities (research grants to professors, etc.), I think it's only fair.


Incidentally, here's MIT's list of free Japanese courses online:
Pop Culture:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Foreign-Langu ... /index.htm

Beginners:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Foreign-Langu ... /index.htm
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Foreign-Langu ... /index.htm

Intermediate:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Foreign-Langu ... /index.htm

Advanced:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Foreign-Langu ... /index.htm
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Foreign-Langu ... /index.htm


Japan's best universites also offer free courses online:
U Tokyo: http://ocw.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/
U Kyoto: http://ocw.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/
U Osaka: http://ocw.osaka-u.ac.jp/index.php
U Nagoya: http://ocw.nagoya-u.jp/index_e.html
U Kyushu: http://ocw.kyushu-u.ac.jp/english/index.html
U Hokkaido: http://ocw.hokudai.ac.jp/index.php?lang=en
Keio: http://ocw.dmc.keio.ac.jp/
Waseda: http://www.waseda.jp/ocw/index_e.html
TIT (bad acronym, I know): http://www.ocw.titech.ac.jp/index.php?lang=EN


Have fun learning!

[orkelm]

You are right on Belton, there are limitations to having someone sit in front of a camera and talk to a lens. Culturally, I will say that the biggest difference with the Japanese informants wasn't so much how they looked at the camera, but how much harder it was to get volunteers. During our projects in Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Chinese it was fairly easy to find volunteers. However, in the case of the Japanese executives, it is harder to offer personal opinions in general, much harder when those opinions are video taped, and even harder when they are shown on the internet! It's a miracle that any were willing at all.

[Liz21]

orkeim-san,
Thank you for this great link. I can't understand everything (mochiron) but it's fun to try while looking at the English translation.

Bueller-san,
An amazing list! Thanks! I would like to try some of those.